


Then Let's Make Lavender

by Midnightbytheshoreside



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Voltron au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 10:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8053306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnightbytheshoreside/pseuds/Midnightbytheshoreside
Summary: --COLOURS AU-- Keith is a prince. Princes shouldn't have to deal with Jesters. Especially blue jester. Very especially Lance Mcclain.The kingdoms have been split for many millennia, separated by their respective colours, and by their ever lasting grudge against each other. However, if they wish to save all their kingdoms, a selected warrior, and four other not so warriors, must band together to keep all the colours from draining out of their world.Except they don't get along.To succeed, the five must become friends, life long companions.But how can that happen if everyone just sees their own colour?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Voltron au I had to make. Plot bunny if you will.

"Get out of my way! You're blocking the whole view with your body, next time make your goal to lose some weight!" Scarlett screeched at the giant mass of yellow in front of her and it gave her a disapproving glare and she almost wished to drive her sword right into him.

"Stop yelling nonsense! Focus on the fight!" Kuro blocked a few shots on a glistening black shield, then quickly dropped it as it faded into pure white, all the colour seemingly draining out of it. 

"We are focusing! Maybe if you quit bossing us around and lighten up a little we'd have more luck!" Azure screeched right back at the heavily armed knight while trying to hold off her own batch of enemies.

"Luck has nothing to do with this. Everything needs to be calculated so we have the highest probability of--" Vert was cut off as a jet of yellow shot out from the shoulder canon Amarillo was carrying around, and being temporarily distracted allowed the enemy to push him back even further in the very corner he was trying to avoid. "Watch where you're shooting, you lug!"

"Quit saying that! I am trying my best, I am not a fighter!" The yellow cook replied before swinging her giant weapon that she could barely carry around to face his real opponents once again, although she felt like there was more fighting between her team mates than with their actual enemies.

"Quit being a coward, and just fight!" Scarlett screeched again and was promptly ignored.

The battle dragged on for hours and never seemed to end until by some miracle their enemies were finally defeated, although it seemed the fight was not over yet.

Kuro sighed in defeat, although they had finally achieved victory, when the red themed princess and blue bearing jester were screaming at each other again and she had to walk over and separate them by sheer force. "Listen up, you fighting fools. We've finally reached our goal. Now let's just... Find the remaining survivors of the attack and return--" she was immediately cut off without even being able to finish her suggestion as Scarlett instantly sprung up.

"No! Not in a million years! I will not live in a kingdom with this fool in my court and a coward!" She screeched, flinging her arms at the much larger knight.

Azure instantly stepped in with a serious glare on  "uh, excuse me? Your court? Who would ever want a kingdom ruled by you anyways!?"

The royal just shot a glare right back "fine then! You can go try to make your own pathetic  
kingdom! I'm getting out of here! You are are useless!" She stormed off as four singular voices screeched an agreement right back, and even though it seemed the five had finally reached an agreement, they were now further apart than ever before.


	2. The Grand Gathering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the first official chapter :3

Keith really didn't want to be here.

There were far too many people milling around, even though only the members of each colour's royal court is allowed to be at the grand gathering of the five kingdoms. He was getting especially tired of the blue courts jester, who seemed instant on hitting on every single female, and some males, from every single court. Something about that dorky smile and the bells constantly ringing On his hat with his energetic movements irked him to no end.

"Everyone acts like this is some sort of party, don't they." The Royal heard a voice coming up beside him and turned to the side curiously, then up after realizing it was the black court's Royal knight Shiro, who was unfortunately more than a head taller than the red Prince.

"Indeed." He tapped his finger impatiently against his hip and frowned more "why can't they just talk business and go. I know that jester definitely does not have to be here." Shiro just gave him a small smile. Even though he's extremely temperamental and cold, the black knight had a sort of aquantenceship with the red Prince, since they had known each other since they were young children and already got to go to the grand gatherings as a learning experience.

"That's Lance. He's quite new to the gathering, I heard it's his first one since he just managed to qualify as the Royal jester for the blue court." He replied curtly while laying his sight on the boy, who had his arm wrapped around another female member of the red court, and was promptly kicked where the sun doesn't shine and now is lying crying on the ground.

Keith sighed again in disappointment and was about to make some sort of curt remark when a bell rang throughout the entire room, signaling that it was time for the dinner right before the four kings or queens have their official meeting. The prince walked over to the banquet table in the center of the room alongside Kuro, although when they got their they split ways in order to join their own kingdoms in the feast.

The Royal advisor of the black kingdom finally stepped up onto the podium in the front of the room, and tapped a microphone before speaking into it in a chirping tone with a weird accent that made Keith want to rip his orange mustache right off his smiling face. 

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! Time to enjoy all this wonderfully prepared food made by the Royal cooks of each kingdom, please enjoy your meal!" He grinned and pitched a side of his mustache while walking off the stage to his own seat and some servants brought out plates full of food, some Keith recognized and others he didn't, onto the table in front of them.

The red Royal hesitated to touch anything that was remotely close to him, since it all seemed to be some bug of some sort, and he seriously doubted the sanitary value of anything he sees unless it was prepared by his own cook. He looked up to a disgusting munching noise however as the yellow side's cook sure seemed to have no qualms about devoting every type of food in front of him, even though he had made most of it.

Those yellows are such pigs. Especially that one. The unpleasant thought passed through his head and he turned away only to spot the blue jester, Lance was his name, wasn't it? Trying to balance a spoon on his nose to impress the green assistant scientist that was sitting across the table on her laptop, obviously disinterested in anything else.

A familiar fire started bubbling in chest, signaling that his temper was about ready to set off again at this dismal display of any sort of humane manners before him, it was like none of these people had formal training in the subject before, although he doubted a jester would even need-- he was cut off in his own mental monologue before suddenly a spoonful of some sort of goo hit him square in the face, as the blue jester had tried to flip it into his own mouth.

The crown went quiet as the prince slowly stood up, his entire small frame shaking with the sheer effort of trying not to throw a tantrum in front of everyone at the gathering, although it was significantly harder than he expected, due to the smug looked that still held its place on the jester in front of him' face.

"Chill mullet, you look prettier this way. You can use that to tame your hair or something. I mean you pretty much look like you use that stuff in your hair anyways, it's so messy."

Yup, that's it.

People started backing away as Keith roared slamming his hands down on the table, flipping over a few plates of delicacies, taking only small satisfaction in seeing the smirk being wiped clean off the jesters face, before flipping his entire segment of the table onto its face. Luckily everyone had been warned of the unwarranted temper of the red Prince, and it was not that this sort of event had never happened before, and had backed away from the table. The remaining others in the red court had already taken down their plates and we're eating on their laps, like this was a daily occurrence in their kingdom.

"You little! Blue! Joke making! Weasel!!" He screeched at the top of his lungs and drew his sword and lunged towards the now frightened teenager, but was halted when a pair of strong arms much longer than his own held him back, and this had been done so many times he didn't even need to turn around to see who the culprit that is preventing him from enacting his revenge is.

"Shiro let me go! I'm going to kill him! I'm going to cut his head off and stake it on a fence!" He continued yelling as Shiro pulled him back more and more out of the crowd.

"Calm down... Your majesty. You're making a scene again Keith." He said the second line much quieter than the first so that only the Royal in his arms could hear him. His breathing eventually evened back out and he stopped struggling to spill Lance's blood after a few minutes, and that gave the servants time to unflip his table and clean up a little around the area as people slowly went back to eating.

The remainder of the feast was relatively uneventful, with the jester now silenced in the corner and having getting the blame for setting off one of the red court member's temper. Keith had also been told to remain silent for the rest of the meal, and he spent his time glaring at the blue fool who dare insulted him. He barely even noticed when the kings and queens got up to go make progress with their meeting, and people started getting up to meander around again.

He did seem no notice however later, when a consistent sound that had been going on throughout the entire feast suddenly seemed to stop but he couldn't quite place what it was. He stopped glared for a moment and shifted his gaze to the green assistant scientist, her name ,if he eavesdropped from the other correctly, was Pidge. She seemed to be looking towards the window with a frown on her face, and when he followed her gaze he realized what she was looking at. 

Through the large windows flanking either side of the room, what looked like a large ball of pitch black was hurling towards them, and his eyes grew huge. Everyone else was too engaged in their conversations to notice anything strange was going on. He turned back to look at the budding scientist was closed her computer and was trying futile to get someone's attention, since she was so short and quiet, but Keith had an idea.

The Royal grabbed the nearest glass vase, sad to see the intricately decorated piece of art go, and smashed it against the ground has hard as he could. The sound rang throughout the entire room, stopping nearly everyone on their tracks, thinking the red Prince was throwing a tantrum again.

"Get down!" He just screamed, loud enough to make sure everyone in the gargantuan could hear him and hear the alert in his voice, before Shiro finally spotted the imminent threat outside the window, and started to scream for everyone to get under a table.

Obviously, chaos followed. People started screaming and running around, not doing what they had been told to do, while others were smart enough to heed the word of the black knight and take cover. 

Keith closed his eyes after ducking underneath the table, and he heard screaming and a deafening crash before something hit him hard in the head and everything faded into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know 0 goes to 9001 really fast, forgive me XD


	3. Quest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the last of the pre made chapters.

Keith saw the world slowly fade back into view, with somewhat frantic yelling coming from one side of his head, and another less annoying voice calming the first down from the other direction. He just groaned and tried to cover his ears. "I can't even get some peace when I'm lying on the ground with a huge headache?" He questioned with more anger in his tone than an injured prince should be able to muster, but of course the others were not surprised.

"Thank goodness you're awake. We don't know what's going on, everything has fallen apart, we can't find anybody else it's like they all disappeared, then you took a plate to the head, and we got worried since we're the only five we could find and I mean other than the really buff guy and maybe you were totally useless in a fight, and--" Keith just raised a hand to silence whatever mumbling idiot was making his headache worse, and after sitting up slowly with Shiro's gentle support, he realized it was the big lug himself, the yellow cook. 

"Right. Okay, shut up. What's your name again?" He said laced with a tone that sounded like he was ready to run someone through with his sword again.

"Uh... Hunk." The man replied, much quieter this time and with less volume. Everyone had to admit that although the prince was small and looked feeble, they knew he had proper training, a fiery temper, and was the only one at the moment beside Shiro who was armed, unless you count juggling balls as weapons.

"Right..." The Royal muttered quietly and shifted the cape that the worried court members had covered him with away. In case nobody ever notices, it isn't really helpful to cover someone injured with a blanket, especially if they're wearing three layers of clothing. He suddenly looked up at the wall and was greeted with a ghastly sight that actually brought fear into his mind somehow. Never mind the fact that there were black spotches on the ground randomly, assuming that's where people have suddenly disappeared, on the wall hung a warning of their fate.

The intricately decorated tapestry that hung on one wall, the one that the black energy's trajectory was headed for, seemed to have been drained of colour. The edges still managed to hold on to some faint traces of purple and gold, some of the beautiful glimmering thread that was used showing through, but the middle area that took the impact was nothing but plain, sheer white. Whatever that attack was had absorbed all of the pigment from the tapestry, leaving but a blank slate of misery, the design bearing a union of the five kingdoms no longer being able to be seen, since it all looked the same now.

"What..." He started but couldn't finish his sentence, and the prince just turned to glance at the others gathered around who have witnessed more than he has.

Shiro finally took a drawn out breath and turned so that he was square facing his friend. "Many people weren't able to find cover before that... I hesitate to say asteroid hit. Those who were still out in the open..." He dropped off as Keith gulped silently at the thought of whatever could be so bad.

"They're all dead basically. Gone. The darkness literally drained the colour, and I guess in this case their life energy, right out of them and they disintegrated." The young scientist who was sitting on the ground next to Keith said, still typing away on her computer, generating that annoying noise, likely taking notes about the events that just occurred.

"Wow. Aren't you a ray of sunshine. Maybe you should have been in yellow. Hey do you guys actually glow like the sun when you get happy, I mean you're already shaped like one right." The jester made motions with his hands in the shape of a circle while Hunk just gave him an unamused look and Pidge ignored him and continued to jot down observations. She took extra care to add the note to ditch the blue joke as soon as possible without being detrimental to whatever she was trying to achieve at the time.

Keith looked seriously about to slice Lance's head off before Shiro lightly placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "Alright, listen up folks, we don't know what's going on, and as far as we are concerned, something is attacking us, we have no idea what it is, and everyone else is go--" he didn't even get to finish the word before the jester jumped in with his hands held out.

"Woah, woah, and woah, how come you're handling orders here? You're a knight. You're supposed to take orders?" He raised one eyebrow as if to criticize the larger man, but was just ignored once again.

"It's because he's the oldest, blank brain. He's got most experience fighting and, unlike you, he can handle responsibilities properly." Keith snapped back instantly even though he wasn't being addressed and currently had no part in this conversation.

"Who says I don't!? I can handle responsibility. I'm responsible!"

"You can't even go two minuets without cracking a horrible joke, messing up something, or hitting on someone!"

"Yeah, and what about you Mr. I flipped a table because of my extreme anger issues?"

"You were being a huge prick!"

"You are a huge prick!" 

Shiro once again stood between the two arguing boys in an attempt to at least get the two to stop screaming at each other. He knew that the blue and red kingdoms have never gotten along well, even since the beginning of the kingdoms, but these two were special. "Alright, let's be rational. Also Keith does have a point. I'm just trying to make sure we don't all meet the same fate as everyone else at this meeting was." He turned to the red Prince, who now had his arms crossed and was staring at the ground like he wanted to burn a hole where he was staring and kick Lance into it. He sighed slightly before continuing "did you... Get the location of the five weapons of the ancestors yet, or did they hold off on that lesson after you uh... Broke the teacher?" He questioned hesitantly, trying to pick his words as not to se off the prince again.

Keith just picked up his cape and folded it over in his arms before looking back up at the black knight. "I got it. I'll lead the way, they're nearby, and I'm betting you have the key to open the door" to which he received a small nod.

"All right then. Let's head there." He turned on one heel and had started walking towards the door before that sad excuse for a person pipped up again with more concerns and fears and, does this man never have any confidence?

"We're just going to walk out there? Into like, you know, the out doors? Where there enemies." He was promptly ignored by the other four who had already started walking out, and after a bit more stuttering was forced to either follow the group, or be left behind in the meeting place by himself, and even the princes temper and the jesters poorly constructed jokes seem better than that in this situation.

Lance just made a whooping siren noise.

"We're going on an adventure!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully those of you who read will stay in tune for more :)


	4. A Salt with a Deadly Weapon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha... Get the pun...

"Are we there yeeet?" The jester whined again, dragging his feet with an exaggerated motion before reaching out towards the knight who was walking right in front of him, hanging on to his shoulders like a life line.

"If you as one more time, I swear blue, I will make it so you actually can't walk any farther." Keith snapped right at him, despite them being separated by the remaining three of their party, due to their tendency to constantly engage each other in not so playful banter and scrimmages. Lance had been asking non stop the entire time they had been traveling only to the magic sealed store house that holds the weapons of the ancestors of the five kingdoms, and the prince was about to break something. Preferably the annoying one's bones. At the moment he just continued to walk, enjoying the crunching sounds he leaves made beneath his feet, and imagining them to be the Whiny jester's face.

"Now now. We just went a few minuets without a death threat. Let's try to increase that time again." Shiro said calmly, dragging Lance behind him without even breaking a sweat. He had been mediating the two bickering teens, convincing them slowly to try to get along. And it was not working what so ever.

"How far is III--" Lance was about to whine again before he was cut short by inertia running him into the back of the black knight's armor when they suddenly stopped.

"We have arrived. Shiro, the key." Keith held a hand out impatiently and was surprised when he felt Shiro's robotic arm in his hand. He turned and slowly raised an eyebrow, asking without words whether or not he was joking, and if so that this was definitely not the time, but the knight shoved his hand forward and placed his palm against the side of the mountain the five seem to have happened upon. An outline of a door that was very previously invisible suddenly lit up upon contact, and the mountain seemed to split in two within the light's borders, creating a giant door for the court members to walk though, as well as a minor earthquake.

"Well. That works too." The prince just shrugged and started walking inside, Shiro following quickly behind him. Pidge, third in line, paused to take some notes about the fascinating magic that powered the door which allowed Lance to jump inside quicker after the two, and Hunk in the rear, questioning a nonchalant assistant scientist about whether or not heading into a dark, unknown cave was really a good, safe idea. He was forced to follow again after they closed the laptop and strode without a care into the newly created cave after the others.

When the last two arrived, Keith had already laid out five boxes onto the ground, each colour coded with their respective kingdom's colours. Except one.

"I apologize Shiro. But apparently your ancestor was so anal about the responsibility the other four had that she hid the weapon away somewhere else. I'm sure we will find it sometime along our quest though. " the prince apologized, and seemed like he was going to continue before there was a thunk, signaling that Lance had already unboxed his weapon and had carelessly thrown the remainders of the box aside.

"Aww sweet. Look at this guys!" He held up a medium sized gun, patterned in blue, black, and white. It had a sleek design which was rounder than most guns, and didn't seem to have an area to hold bullets. Lance looked his weapon, flipping it over multiple times to get a full scope, before aiming it at the wall and suddenly taking fire. Bright blue bullets of light started shooting out, causing the other four to run for cover as the impact created a shower of rocks.

Shiro just rolled his eyes slightly and tried to hold back a now newly furious Keith as Hunk slowly removed the lid on his weapon, and his eyes grew wide in either surprise or wonder, it was hard to tell. He lifted out a much larger gun, more of a shoulder canon, it was mainly yellow and white with small lit up light blue decals. The cook grinned down at his new tool of mass destruction, before swinging it towards the wall where the jester had shot earlier, and fired off a chain of yellow light bullets, causing even more mayhem to rain down upon the party gathered there.

"That's it!" The prince finally elbowed Shiro in the stomach, taking him by surprise, and flung open the lid to the red box, pulling out a large, double bladed red and white sword as well as a magically charged shield. The sword was light and small enough to be held in just one hand, however the prince was clearly able to use it as a two handed weapon as he charged at the two gun holders without even thinking about their ranged attacks. 

To everyone's surprise, Keith was able to deflect nearly every shot that was aimed correctly shot by the two whom had already recovered their weapons, and managed to lay a solid punch to Lance's stomach with the blunt handle of the sword, knocking him to the ground and knocking the gun from his hands as Hunk backed up in fear.

Lance instantly stood back up, pressing his face right up to the prince's with a glare "what do you think you're doing!? You could have seriously hurt me!" He yelled to which Keith just growled. 

"That was the intent." Lightning almost seemed to be flashing between the two teens eyes before Pidge walked up and separated them, having already retrieved his weapon while the two were fighting. It appeared to be a small green, white, and black handle for Pidge to hold on to, attached to a glowing green blade buzzing with electricity along the entire triangle shaped top edge.

"Ha!" Lance just scoffed and crossed his arms, looking down on the green scientist as well as his ancestor's weapon. "Your kingdom's founder left you a cute little weapon." His smirk was short lasted however when the young person drove the weapon into his side, jolting him with electricity, causing him to fall over in pain and regret, leaving the standing scientist with a cocky grin upon his face.

"All right. I think we're ready to kick but." The five looked towards the entrance of the dark cave to the outside world, wondering what awaited them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's because Keith is a salty boy who now has a deadly weapon. Good luck surviving Lance.


	5. We Had a Bonding Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A... Surprising amount of people actually seem to like this story XD therefor I have decided to start writing longer chapters, since I really enjoy writing this story as fell. ENJOY!!

If one more of those branches hits him in he face one more time, heaven forbid, but Keith will attempt to shank Mother Nature in the face by any means possible.

The five newly met 'friends' have been wandering through the forest for nearly an hour now, each equipped with their own respective weapons, searching for a possible cause of the demise of nearly all the members at the grand gather. An attack at a place that specific, full of important people, could not have possibly been an accident, especially since it was a strange magic none of the five have ever seen before, much less had to engage in battle.

However it appeared that nature was not on their side.

Lance had not stopped complaining the entire way through the trees, whether it be that it was too hot, too dark, too wet, or just too much like a forest. Hunk was getting stuck in every single nook and cranny, and after a moment of debate as well as looking the poor cook behind two trees a few times, they finally sent him to the front of the processions so Shiro could help him through any tough areas. The black knight was also worried about Pidge taking the rear, since although they're a lot of power packed in a little being, wild animals are a lot of power packed in a large being.

As a result, Keith had to bring up the back of the group, and since Pidge can crouch to dodge the branches being pushed aside by Lance, the prince got hit by nearly every single one. And he was about to rage with a fire so hot it would burn this entire stupid forest right to the ground.

"Would it kill you to now push the branches that far!? " he finally stopped and screamed loud enough for even Hunk to hear so the team can stop and wait for the two to finish yet another of their arguments. 

"It's not my fault your reaction time is so slow." Lance just replied simply and smugly, giving Keith a look with a corner of his mouth slightly turned up, as if proud of all the foliage he indirectly hurled at the prince.

"At least it's faster than your brain, you stupid weasel."

"Oh yeah! Well..." He snapped back ready to defend himself before dropping off slowly, not being able to come up with any sort of coherent comeback in such a short amount of time. He frowned when he watched Keith's mouth slowly formed into a smile at his victory, and that just made Lance more furious than he probably should have been. He snapped the nearest branch off a tree and hurled it at the prince, hitting him square in the face as Pidge just ignored them and walked last Lance to stand watching in disappointment with the others.

Keith just roared and grabbed the branch, snapping it clean on his knee and tackling Lance before he had any time to react and fire his weapon, and before Shiro can once again stop their bickering.

Before they knew it, Lance stumble backwards down a steep decline, and they both fell down lion king style, rolling through all the dirt and rocks that covered the forest ground as well as startling many innocent forest creatures.

By the time they got their act together and Keith had time to dust himself off and allow Lance to retrieve his hat, they realized that they could only see trees and forest fauna. They had lost the others.

"This is all your fault! Why do you always have to overreact like that! it's not a big deal, it's just a little joke." Lance walked up in the prince's face, but then slightly regretted his decision when he saw the pure fury in the latter's eyes.

"A joke, A joke!?" He enraged prince stepped forward while the now fearful jester started back treading fast, hands up in front of him in a defensive position. "We are lost in the forest, without any help from anybody else, and I'm stuck with a little twerp who thinks is is all some joke!? Jokes are funny! They make people laugh! Do I look like I am laughing!? Your jokes are nothing but hurtful, cruel, and unnecessary! Just like you! What makes you think you're so much better than everyone else that you can make jokes like that in a time like this! You're insufferable! You..." He slowed down and eventually stopped when he saw something in Lance's face that surprised him.

Tears had begun to unwontedly well up in the jester bright blue eyes, causing Keith to back up with wide eyes at the unexpected display of emotions. Lance just held up an arm to his eyes, wiping off the tears as well as preventing him from seeing any more of the screaming prince.

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... But it's fine really. I get that a lot..."a smile was slowly forced on his face before he suddenly sprinted and ran in the opposite direction, leaving a stunned prince behind, for once considering the consequences of his actions and whether they had an effect on people.

After a solid minuet, Keith finally snapped out of his stupid and turned around to face the direction that Lance had ran, luckily finding a trail left behind by the jester in the form of cracked branches and upheaved leaves. He ran, following the trail without hesitation, before it suddenly seemed to end.

"Lance!?" The prince formed a megaphone using his hands, trying to get a reply from the jester to no avail. "Lance!? Where are you!?" He called again after a brief paused and frowned after being treated to another few seconds of complete silence. "Lance!? I shouldn't have yelled okay!? I know I overreact a lot and I guess it was one of those times.. And... I guess.... I need to apologize." He sighed, disappointed that he was once again subjected to complete silence, but that slowly turned into fear as he heard a scream. A scream from a familiarly annoying voice.

Keith instantly ran towards the noise, bursting into a small clearing full of some sort of sweet smelling flower. Not to mention the jester caught in a spider web, frantically struggling to get out.

"Hold on, stop struggling so much." He said surprisingly calmly and walked over, pulling out his sword to cut through the webs as Lance was screaming and on the verge of crying at his current predicament, mumbling things in Spanish rapidly as Keith worked through the tough fibers. 

Then Lance stopped moving and making noise, almost like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. A giant, pitch black, spider shaped car.

"K-Keith. Someone's home..." Lance whisper screamed to the teen trying to set him free, who just continued working, rolling his eyes at the scared boy.

"I'm not afraid of a little spider, Lance." He said before swallowing his words as a shadow loomed past his head and onto Lance. A very, very large shadow.

Keith just grabbed onto Lance, quickly jerking him sideways against the will of the web as the spider suddenly struck down with its fangs, eager to see his meal had doubled while he was away. Keith managed to roll them both Mosley out of danger, his left shoulder blade unfortunately taking a small nick from having to drag Lance's weight and the web's resistance with him. He quickly turned around, sword already drawn, to face the giant disproportionate creature towering before him.

He just tightened his grip and focused on his enemy, allowing himself a small grin now that he was allowed to use the skills he learned ever since he was selected to be the candidate for the next red Prince. He dashed cowards at greater speeds that a normal human should be able to achieve, cleanly slicing off one of the spiders legs before it can even react, earning him a screeching hiss from the giant beast. It started tilting over, frantically moving all of its legs to turn around and face its prey once again. However, none of its eyes could spy the little pest covered in red that had escaped its grasp.

"Are you looking for me, monster!?" The voice came from below the spider, before a flash of red was thruster up into the abdomen of the spider, causing a great screech before the beast seemed to dissenting rate and evaporate into the air as a black, shadow like smoke.

Keith took some deep breaths and ran over back to Lance, quickly finishing off his earlier work of freeing the speechless jester faster than before, thanks to the adrenaline still running through his veins. Finally after a little struggle, Lance was freed and Keith clipped his sword back onto his belt in a retracted form.

"You... You... You can fight!?" Lance finally mustered up the words to let out a fully, or at least semi fully coherent sentence. He had never known that any of the royals received battle training, since all he had to do to train to become the royal court jester was to be good at jokes and comedy, as well as practicing a few juggling tricks and performance tips.

"Yes. In case you didn't know, just because you have a royal title slapped in front of your name, doesn't mean you lounge around all day and eat food, or whatever you would imagine." He said curtly before wincing and holding onto his shoulder with his opposite hand, not at all surprised to find his hand come back drenched in dark Scarlett liquid. Lance, on the other hand, started to flip out.

The jester quickly grabbed hold of a dash he wore, tearing a seam in it to temporarily use as a bandage for his injured savior, which is the least he figured he could do considering the red Prince had just saved his life from a giant spider.

"Right, whatever. Let's just move on to find the others. I would rather not figure out if that thing had friends." He winced again after shifting his shoulder, hissing slightly at what feels like liquid fire pulsing in the area around the wound to the beat of his heart. 

Lance just simply nodded in reply, sloppily bandaging Keith's shoulder with the shiny blue fabric. The prince didn't even bother to fix the poor work of the jester, due to a headache that seemed to be gradually increasing in intensity. Right when he was about to mention something, a worried trio of varying states of panic busted through the trees.

"Prince Keith. Oh thank goodness you're okay. And the blue jester too."

"Oh my god, we thought you were dead, we hear Lance screaming as well as the noises of whatever that thing that probably was here just a moment ago was, and I got scared, and everyone panicked, and I thought you were going to get eaten, and--" hunk was cut off by Pidge nudging him slightly before looking back at the two survivors before them.

"I figured you guys could do it, wasn't too worried. There's no use panicking. After all you, two are still whole and-- Keith?" The scientist suddenly frowned as he saw the red Prince waver before collapsing onto his side. Lance, being the closets instantly dashed towards him and caught him so that he wouldn't hit his head on something sharp and worsen whatever injury was getting to him.

Keith's vision was slowly going dark, the vibrant colours of the forest slowly fading away into the shadows encroaching upon his eyesight. The last thing he remembered was Lance's bright blue eyes wide with worry over his face, and the sound of his new friends screaming at him to stay awake.

Friends. I like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eheh... I'm evil I know. I just love breaking all the characters I write with.


	6. Comatose Beauty

"Oh no, what if he doesn't wake up, is he dead, did everyone check and double check to make sure he's not dead, oh my goodness aside from Shiro he's the only one who knows how to fight, and Shiro doesn't have one of these cool magical weapons, and we can't just leave him here, what if he is alive, oh my goodness--" the yellow cook rambled on and on the the background to Shiro's great distaste, but he gave him leeway this time due to the dire circumstances and just ignored him. 

"Pidge. How is the research coming along." He turned to the assistance scientist, who was furiously typing away on his computer, researching about the monster Lance had just described to them. Pidge just glanced up slightly at the knight before shrugging slightly and instantaneously going back to their work.

Shiro just sighed and looked back at the blue jester, who still has Keith's head on his lap, and is searching for the wound that likely caused the prince to suddenly fall over and black out like he did. He had no idea how things got this bad, Shiro was supposed to be the protector of the group, the Knight, yet he let a royal get lost with a jester, then have to fight a giant monstrous spider and get severely injured. He was eventually jolted out of his own thoughts when he heard a small gasp come from Lace. He glanced over before partly regretting his decision. 

Lance's searching revealed a thin ragged scar running across Keith's shoulder, and although the wound was very narrow it was obviously quite deep and reached into the flesh. The area around the wound seemed irritated, and although the wound had stopped bleeding already, crooked black veins were starting to show up all around the shoulder, making it look like a black spider web had been strung up around the cut.

"Uh... Do any one of you guys happen to have earned a medical degree?" Lance laughed half heartedly before giving up on trying to come up with jokes and lighten the mood all together. He hated that this all happened because he got upset and had to run away, separating himself from the other other possibly non hostile- as non hostile as Keith gets- living being that is in this entire forest. The prince didn't have to protect him, it wasn't even his job, he was supposed to give orders and others were supposed to take them. If they didn't listen, he had no obligations to save them in times of need, it just was not what princes did, so why did Keith?

Pidge suddenly stood up and ran over to the knight and the jester looking over the prince, seemingly excited as they opened up the screen towards them, earning them a confused look from the two. "I think I found something. Check it out. This could be a remedy." This perked everyone's interest as the stared towards the screen, where Pidge had pulled up an image of some interesting looking plant. It had the appearance of a vine, with large red flowers growing upon it that had intricate blue decoration all patterns all over them, as if someone had taken blue paint and drew on the decals. Underneath the blooming flowers where small, purple berries in dewdrop shapes.

"Great so then we just have to go find these, great. We only have an entire forest to look through!" Lance exclaimed, throwing his arms up on the air in a wild movement. Shiro just gently pressed his hands down and gave the plant a thoughtful look, considering and weighting his options.

"Well... Even if it's near impossible, we have to give it a try. How long do we have Pidge." He looked up just in time to see the assistant scientist's face fall a little.

"Well, I don't know how good his immune system is, but... He only has A few hours art best..." They just slowly shut the computer. Pidge had tried to find any possible way to heal the prince faster, but the only result seemed to be completely impossible. They except to see disappointment when he looked up at the knight's face, but was surprised when there was only a small smile.

"Thanks for your efforts, Pidge. At least this gives us some hope." He looked back towards the others, the smile falling off his face and being replaced with a serious look. "Lance, Hunk, we need to go try and find this plant as soon as possible, Pidge will stay here and look after the prince, we need to be efficient with our work, so don't get distracted." He rattled off as everyone listened. Nobody was in the mood to argue with the knight about taking leadership, as he was quite competent in the subject as well. Lance gently moved Keith's head off his lap before getting up and running out in a direction. Hunk had hesitated a moment, not exactly willing to go into the wilderness alone, but left afterwards anyways after weighting the situation, as well as life at hand. Shiro simply gave a small, reassuring nod to Pidge before also running off in a third direction, leaving the scientist to fend for the self and the comatose prince.

Seconds turned into minuets, and minutes turned into impatience as one after another came back empty handed, deeming it too dangerous to continue searching the area. Hunk made it back first, only managing to find herbs and spices to Pidge's initial dismay. Shiro followed soon after, having discovered that there were more than giant venomous spiders in the forest, and that there many have been one too many things that may be currently trying to eat the small scientist in the clearing with the prince, and went back to protect what was still left.   

All three just patiently waited for the last member of their party to come back from his search, likely empty handed, or waiting for him to come back at all. Truth be told.

Lance was lost.

In his mad rush to get out and find the elusive remedy, he didn't bother to leave trails or even keep track of landmarks while running into the forest. Luckily, he had managed to acquire the berries that were needed from the plant, but now became increasingly frustrated as there was no way to get back to the temporary encampment the court members had created. All he could do was start walking in the direction he believe he came from.

All of a sudden, conversion voice floated through the forest and reached the jester's ears, and excited, he ran towards it, hoping to find his new friends faces, but yet arrived at another surprise.

"Where are they, you said?" Lance spotted the one who produced that sentence, or rather he should say the thing. He perched behind a bush, making a discrete hole to spy on these new beings.

There was a small group, approximately 5, of these strangers standing together in a circle, seemingly discussing something important, the mainly intriguing thing was that they weren't even people. Shadowy humanoid figures was the best Lance could use to describe them, the stood tall with two legs and two arms like any normal human, but it seemed their body was completely enveloped by darkness, as if staring into a starless, moonless night sky. The jester also managed to notice the ground at their feet was white and lifeless, as if the very colour had been vacuumed out of it when these creatures arrived.

"They're just over the hill, and one of them is still down, while another is gone. I can just go in, they seem like they would trust easily and not question me too much before it's too late." Another spoke, although Lance didn't see any sign of movement of a mouth or anything. All the jester could do was watch in horror as the shadows slowly changed colours and became more tame, shapeshifting the creature to look like a young woman. If Lance had not personally seen the transformation, he would have never believed that person, that facade, to be anything but a normal human being. He then realized there was no time. 

Sneaking around the newly discovered creatures, he made his way over the hill that was previously mentioned, to find yet another surprise fate had thrown his way that day. In between the support of Shiro and Hunk stood the red Prince, Keith, awake and apparently healthy.  He quickly ran over and practically tackled the still injured prince, earning him more yelling from the prince as well as laughter from his friends.

"What happened? You're okay? When?" He rattled off questions after question as Shiro helped Keith back up.

"It's like a miracle! We were all worried he was going to die, and worried that you weren't coming back, but then suddenly he woke up! Just like that! It seemed we underestimated  his abilities to recover." Hunk explained, more happy than he had ever been since he started this journey with the other court members. They all cheered and rejoiced, even earning a small smile from the prince himself, before Lance finally remembered his earlier encounter.

"We've got to get out of here. I spied on some creatures early... Some dark shadowy figures, you have to believe me. I think it's linked to the attack earlier, but they know where we are, I will explain as we move!" He started walking as Hunk followed and then Shiro, still lending Keith some support with an arm to make sure he was completely okay, at lest for now.

But Pidge couldn't join in on their cheer, and closed their computer with a snap as they watched these people they realized they don't know well enough parade on through the forest like they had just won some sort of battle, but Pidge knew what he saw.

Venom from the monstrous spiders that inhabit the forest is 100% fatal to humans unless treated.

To humans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seeeee, I didn't kill off Keith :3 I just like leaving everything at cliff hangers and being evil XD


	7. Sleep is for the Weak

Keith was going to kill that boy. It was the middle of the night, and the forest was silent. Lance was not.

The blue jester was snoring loudly, curled up into a little ball in his sleeping bag, while Keith tried to cover his ears the best he could, but failed to block out the annoying noises coming from his mouth. He was just about ready to shove a rock in his mouth to shut him up, but then sighed to himself. The prince had already made the boy cry once, and he knew how badly that ended, so he decided getting up and taking a walk through the forest would likely be more productive.

He got out of his bright red sleeping bag and secured the knife left by his ancestor to his belt before silently walking away from the camp. The moonlight provided barely enough illumination for him to see, but he was not about to simply lie there awake while everyone else slept.

After strolling for a little while, he noticed a bright light up ahead between the trees, brighter than should be naturally possible in the middle of the night in a dark forest, and he chose to get in closer and investigate the circumstances. When he got closer, he slowed down, then gently brushed aside the branches of a particularly skinny branched bush to peek in on the scene.

Keith instantly regret his decision however, as his curiosity led him straight to a middle aged couple making out by a fireside. He couldn't help the noise he made as he recoiled and fell onto his back, causing loud crunching noises as the leaves and branches beneath him crashed. In another moment, the two people were looking over him concerned, and he got an awful sense of deja vu.

"Are you alright?" The woman reached out a hand to the prince and he hesitantly took it and allowed her to pull him into a sitting position. Keith took this time to study the couple as they seemed to do the same. Since they were wearing gray clothes, Keith couldn't tell what kingdoms they were from, but both seemed to be somewhere in their late thirties. The woman had long, straight blonde hair with light hazel eyes that had a ring of blue around the middle, and had a sweet smile and a high voice. The man had short, curly dark brown hair with the same coloured eyes, as well as a scruff led goatee.

"What are you doing out here, boy?" The man asked while returning to his fire, and Keith would have felt offended by being called a boy and being practically accused of being in the wrong place, however, the man's tone did not indicate any mocking intent.

"I'm..." he hesitated before making up a close story "I'm camping out with a few friends, and one just happens to snort like a pig when he sleeps, so I came out to get some peace. since I was not going to be able to sleep either way, I figured it'd be better to spend my time at least doing something." He finished. Everything he told was mainly true, he just figured some details should be left out, though the couple seemed to notice.

They shared a glance with each other, and there was a slight pause before the woman spoke out again. "What... what would a Royal be doing out here?" She asked, obviously hesitantly. Keith initially didn't feel like answering that question, and wished to retort with the fact that just because he's a Royal does not mean he cannot go camping in some forest and have some fun, but he suddenly remembered the true reason. The couple must have noticed the look on his face when he thought back to the attack at the gathering, since they instantly changed the topic.

"Well... oh what do we call you?" The guy questioned while the prince just shrugged slightly.

"Just... Keith is fine... Keith Kogane." He smiled a little bit in return to the man's large grin, and they probably thought he was being humble or something, but he simply did not with to draw that much attention, or be held to such high standards.

The guy seemed to understand, as he seemed to relax a bit. "Well then Keith, we were going to just have a late night snack, since we got lucky with some hunting today. Would you like to join in?" He smiled kindly, and although Keith was generally not one to trust strangers, these two just seemed different, almost like the involved him in their family atmosphere. He was already very tired of traveling around and eating mainly berries and various fruits, and although he was starting to enjoy the company of his new friends, the company these two offered seemed different. He accepted after a little hesitation, and the couple seemed to be satisfied with this decision.

The rest of the night went well, as the man revealed the large boar he had been cooking over their fire, and they all ate together as they shared some interesting stories of their pasts. Keith mainly sat slightly to the side and listened to the couple chat about the times they've had with each other, and even before they met each other. It was refreshing for the prince to finally have some mature company, but he realized that he would soon have to make it back to the camp and still try to get some sleep in preparation for the next day's journey.

"You sure you don't wanna stay? We really wouldn't mind having you around for the night, and your friends should understand." The woman said as Keith stood up, resecuring his sword and he just turned to the woman and smiled slightly.

'Thank you. For everything. But I really should get back. Last time I disappeared there was a bit of an issue and some panic. However, I hope you two have a safe trip to... what was the village you're traveling to? Divox? Either way, good luck. I enjoyed spending time with you two." He bowed slightly before exiting the way he came to return to camp.

A few moments later

The shadowy figure which sat cross legged atop the large rock smiled as his companions brought him the good news. "The plan is going very well, I thought it would be harder to earn the trust of the prince, but as you said, he seemed to enjoy spending time with people that seem like potential parents." The man from beside the campfire stated as he grinned, and the one on the rock seemed pleased as he stepped down.

"And the tracker?" He questioned, and the man nodded. "Good... and change back while you're at it. I cannot take you seriously like that." He commanded as the man before him faded away, being replaced by a similarly disfigured shadowy creature.

If all goes well, this would get interesting, and they might finally be able to get their prize.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eheh


	8. Two Can Keep a Secret...

"What's the name of the village again?"

Everyone groaned when Lance asked the question for the eleventh time while holding the map.

"Why are you holding the map again?" Keith snapped at him before practically ripping the map from his hands and pointing at a specific place on the map. "We're going there. Divox. A nice couple I met a while back said it was a pretty safe village to stay over a night." He lied skillfully. It's been two days since he met them in the woods, so it was not a reach, but he decided it wouldn't be a good idea to tell the others that their entire plan was based on some couple he met for a few hours in the woods. The others didn't know them like he did.

Lance on the other hand simply rolled his eyes. "Whatever. When do we actually get to do some cool hero stuff, rescue a few damsels in distre--" he cut off just as a feminine sounding scream was heard in the distance.

"You just had to speak, didn't you Lance." The red prince said, but when he looked up from the map he realized he was speaking to empty air as the others had already ran off in order to save the source of the scream. Keith just sighed exasperated and carefully rolled up the map, tucking it away before running after his traveling companions.

By the time he arrived, the fight was already over, and Lance had a teenage blonde girl carried in his arms bridal style, to Keith's great annoyance. He just strolled over anyways, clearing his throats to cat their attention. "Great. Okay. We found the city. Lance you can put the female down now." He said before Lance gave him a cocky grin. 

"What? Jealous you didn't get the girl? Here you can hold her too." He said then threw the girl playfully towards him, causing him to have to unfold his arms to prevent the girl from dropping and breaking something on the cobblestone path. He looked down to see the girl giggling, obviously thrilled at the jester's antics, a hand over her mouth while the other messed with her own strawberry blonde locks, but Keith was not amused.

So he dropped her. 

The next half an hour was filled with everyone except Keith apologizing profusely to the girl's family, although they took it well since they happened to have also saved their daughter. The second half of the hour was spent with the group reprimanding him for dropping the girl, but Lance seemed especially irked.

"What were you thinking?! She was so pretty, we could have made friends and one of us could possibly have gotten a date or something, I mean we did reach the city we were looking for after all, we could stay a while!" He spat out rapid fire to an uninterested prince.

"I don't want to date her." He replied curtly with fired off another stream of responses from Lance.

"How could you not! She's cute, she pretty, she giggles, and she likes my jokes! She was pretty perfect, and we just saved her from some monstrous beast. What are you, gay or something!?"

"Yes."

"I mean, she had beautiful eyes and--" he sudden cut short, having not fully processed Keith's reply until he was halfway through his sentence. He just awkwardly turned his head towards the prince, who was still standing there with his held held high, an indifferent look on his face, with his arms crossed over his chest.

The area went uncomfortably silent and Keith glanced around and raised an eyebrow. "What? Tiger got your tongues?"

"No... I guess we just... assumed you were straight." Pidge was the first to speak up after they adjusted their glass back on top their nose, since it had slid down while they were gawking.

"What made you assume that?" He asked, genuinely confused. "What, do I need to act more gay?"

"No, it just seems like if one of us were gay, it'd be Lance or something." They continued before the jester could protest. "I mean, he's the lanky one with the tan skin and messy hair and flamboyant personality."

"Are you saying there can only be one gay person in every friend group." He asked, still not budging from his plain expression while everyone else stood around awkwardly. Keith just sighed "there's no use dwelling on that. It's not some big secret. Let's just find some place to stay for the night." He said before he heard a familiar voice call out from a side, and he turned to see the couple from the woods. 

"Hey! Just heard you say you needed a place to stay?" The man, Keith remember he was told his name was David, asked while advancing towards them with his wife, who he remembered to be named Elena. The red prince simply smiled and was about to agree before Shiro cleared his throats behind him.

"Keith. Who are these people? You seem to know them?" He asked forcefully.

Shit. Was all Keith could think. He sighed, realizing he wouldn't be able to avoid this one. "I met them in the woods while we were camping.., they're the ones that suggested this town. It's fine, they're nice people." He said, although the knight still seemed wary.

"You've been sneaking away in the middle of the night?" He asked back, although less forcefully, and for some reason that just annoyed Keith to no extent.

"What, do. I always have to be by you fools? You know, sometimes I like some mature-" he glared at Lance after placing an emphasis on the word "company." He put his hands on his hips, obviously about to lose his temper again.

Lance just threw his hands up in the air and frowned with a 'what did I ever do to you' expression on his face while Shiro gently put his arm between the two to separate them in the case that Keith does decide to attack. They needed the jester alive after all.

"Look, Keith, I'm not being rude but I'd rather not trust strangers. You can handle yourself, so if you really want, why don't you stay with the nice couple, and we will find somewhere else to lodge for the night, all right?" He offered, and the royal took a deep breath before relaxing and nodding, crossing his arms back together again.

Shiro looked towards the couple for confirmation, and they simply nodded with smiles on their faces. "We'd be glad to. He really is delightful company." The black knight smiled back before leading the others off.

Keith and the couple headed towards a nice small looking house, and he settled in one of the guest rooms nicely, easily falling asleep assuming he was in a safe spot and tired out from the long hours of walking to the town.

On the other end, the others were finding a harder time discovering a place to stay, as the town seemed practically deserted, and after a little bit of trying to find an inn they practically gave up.

Lance just groaned before rubbing his face with an over-dramatically tired expression.  "I'm tired of this, I'm going to go check on Keith, he's had better luck than the rest off us." He walked off before anyone could stop him, and Shiro decided to just not call him back. It was a small town anyways, they'll meet again very soon.

The jester uneasily wandered around the seemingly deserted town, trying to remember what the House he saw Keith and the couple go into looked like, but suddenly he spotted some blurry figures sneaking into the window of a house. Looking up, he realized what house it was. He quickly ran towards it, sliding the last few feet to the door before knocking on it. "Keith! Keith! Someone is breaking into--" the door suddenly opened and he saw a confused looking David standing there, one hand behind the door.

"Why what's the trouble? Changed your mind?" He asked nonchalantly as Lance glanced at the window, gasping for air as he was out of shape, then looking back towards the man.

"Someone--something just broke into your house!" He yelled frantically. The man didn't seem to know what was going on, and Lance was growing impatient before he heard a scream coming from a room in the house. The angry prince, his friend the angry prince's scream, something he never really expected to hear.

When he looked from beyond David back to the man, all he saw was a large sack coming towards his head, bagging him up, and before he hand a chance to scream he felt something impact against his head, and the world faded into darkness as deep as what he saw that day back at the gathering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :'3 I'm sorry but I'm not sorry.


	9. If One of Them is Dead.

What is that gargling noise...

Lance slowly tried to sit up, then groaned again as he felt a heavy pounding on the right side of his head. He tried to use his hand to steady himself, but realized it was stop short with a clinking noise. Confused, he looking down, only to see that his wrists were locked together with a pair of rusty handcuffs, he felt panic rising in his chest when he additionally realized all he could see was the interior of a rough sack, but that lasted shortly as the sack was instantly removed, causing light to flood back into his vision.

He blinked a few times to get used to it before starting to look around, quickly spotting David holding the sack he was in just a few moments ago over his head. He growled when he saw a smirk on the man's face "what's the meaning of this!? What are you doing!?" He struggled slightly, but then winced as the handcuffs chaffed his arms. "You're going to pay for this.. Keith... Keith's gonna..." he slowly cut off when he remembered the events that occurred right before he was knocked out.

He remembered hearing the prince scream, and suddenly concern grew to be his main emotion. "Where is he!? Where's Keith!?" He screamed at the man who just laughed.

"Don't worry. We didn't kill your little acquaintance" he said before stepping to the side. Lance's eyes just widened in surprise when Keith came into view, dangling by the wrists to a pair of handcuffs connected to a chain that came from the ceiling. Luckily the chain was long, so the prince still had his knees on the ground to support his weight, instead of being hung like freshly cut meat. It was also obvious, however, that there had been a struggle on his side. He was covered in many small cuts and bruises, and the scar on his shoulder from the giant spider had reopened horrendously, slowly dropping scarlet drops of blood onto a small puddle of its companions on the stone cold ground.

He suddenly felt something he had generally repressed in himself bubble to the surface. He let out a shriek and suddenly leapt up, head butting the man where the sun doesn't shine. He watched with satisfaction as the man double over, then he rammed into him to knock him onto his side. Lance cracked his neck as he allowed himself this short period of his generally unused emotion.

Pure fury.

He then suddenly realized something and turned, running over to the red prince and gently nudging him with his shoulder. "Keith? Keith! Wake up buddy!" He said louder and louder until he saw his eye twitch then open slightly as he groaned.

"Ugh... Lance... you're annoying..." he muttered quietly before coughing, and the jester realized he had never been happier to hear anyone call him annoying.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay, when I first saw you I almost thought--" he got cut off when a large hand wrapped around his mouth, and another grabbed onto the chain connecting his wrists, dragging him back towards the wall he came from.

"Lance!" He heard the red prince yell before coughing again and struggling to his feet, pulling down on the chain and bringing his hand down to his face to support him. "let him go!" Keith ordered, however, he didn't expect the man to instantly let go of Lance, allowing him to drop to the ground. "Wha..."

"Confused?" Keith heard a voice behind him and he suddenly whipped around, but what he didn't expect was to have his eyes meet a shadowy figure instead of an actual person. He reeled back slightly at the unsettling feeling he was getting from the creature, as he heard him laugh. The laughter was distorted in the most uncomfortable ways, causing Keith to wince, and Lance to scoot back away from him.

The shadows suddenly started looking as if they were blowing away, leaving behind the image of a middle aged man with short, messy black hair and longer bangs on either side of his face. He was wearing a plain gray suit with coat tails and a white dress shirt underneath, the grayscale outfit completed with a black bow tie around his neck.

"Why of course he would listen to you. You're the prince after all." He said with a sharp grin, and Keith just stared at him speechless, however the jester behind him had seen these creatures once before, and managed to regain his composure faster.

"He's no prince of yours! He's the prince of the red kingdom! He has nothing to do with you!" He yelled, struggling forward onto his feet as the man just laughed loudly, the sound ringing through the small, plain room.

"Oh, that's what you naïveté humans think. But then I guess you wouldn't know either." He turned his head towards Keith then grabbed him by the cheeks with one hand. "Don't you, son." 

Lance just held his position, but he mentally reeled back. No. It couldn't be true. He knew Keith since he was little, admiring him as he came through on trips throughout the kingdoms for diplomatic purposes, and despite his occasional temper tantrums, he was always confident and regal. When he glanced over at Keith to ask what was really going on, he saw none of that composure left. Instead Keith was looking up at the man wide eyed, and by the chain rattling behind him The jester could tell he was shaking slightly.

The mysterious man just scoffed before letting Keith go, who immediately stepped back as far away from the man as the chain would allow him. "No... I don't know you. My parents were the king and Queen..." he said but then trailed off as he heard the man's laughter ring through out the room again.

"Of course you would never remember. It was so long ago. Our kind was always excluded from the kingdoms, separated to gain bitter feelings on our own. So of course, when we heard that the new baby prince had unexpectedly died in the red kingdom, we were ecstatic." He explained, slowly pacing around Keith as the two court members looked on in disbelief, piecing the parts of the puzzle together as it was being laid out in front of them. "Little did we know..." the man's voice turned dark as he turned towards Keith. "That they would come here, and steal my son, out prince, as some sort of test, an experiment, and train him to act like a human child, their human child, and take his place." He finished. There must have been more to the story, but they didn't need it. It was enough to realize what had happened.

Lance was again first to snap out of the shock, his first reaction to deny everything the man said, but every word he wanted to say were suddenly caught in his throat when he saw tears start to roll down Keith's eyes, and he had the instinct to go up there and wipe them off his face. It was weird to see someone he remembered being so proud and powerful captured and crying in the enemy's lair.

When the jester turned back to the man, however, he jumped back, realizing he was much close than before.

"We were going to take him back sooner, but something always got in the way. Now we realize that we shouldn't be taking him away, but rather using him to put advantage. One of our own, working secretly against all his 'friends' in your small group of make believe heroes." He took another step forward, and pulled a jagged edged sword out of a holster by his side. "However, we can't have you telling, now can we? You know what they say. Two can keep a secret..." he raised his sword "if one of them is dead."

A swishing sound was heard as metal sped through the air towards its target...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? Oh was that a cliff hanger? Hmm... oh well :3


	10. Outcast

Lance squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. This was it. He was going to die here. The world would never see his handsome face or hear his amazing jokes every again.

Boy this sword sure is taking a long time to swing...

Hesitantly, the blue parading opened his eyes, in shock to see another blade intercepting the one that was inches away from his neck. Keith's sword had reached its target, and just in time.

The man seemed surprised, but then just started smirking. Lance wondered why he seemed so glad, but the question was quickly answered for him.

"Keith?" The jester questioned hesitantly, as although he recognized the red prince's red and white double sided sword, he himself had changed appearances greatly. His skin had turned almost a shade of purple, and he had grown sharp teeth and claws, however he did still have his mullet. He truly did look like one of those monsters, or at least somewhere between that and what he usually looks like, and Lance just had to accept that that made complete sense. 

The now purple prince swung his blade up with surprising force, flinging the sword that the monster was holding, but he did not even seem bothered. "You transformed to get out of the chains. Who knew you would be so desperate for such an annoying little brat?" He laughed, which caused Lance to want to rip off his tongue and make him eat it.

Keith just looked shaken for a moment before the stone hard fury and concentration he usually has when fighting entered his eyes again, and in moments the man was on his ground with his hands bound behind his back and a blade pressed to his neck.

The man's expression became serious as he glared up at his offspring. "You would kill your own father for some worthless human?" He questioned, and Lance's confidence faltered for a moment when Keith hesitated. He seemed to consider everything for a moment, maybe going with him was he better idea. How could his friends accept him now that he is clearly one of the enemy? More than anything he wished that he could simply revert things back to the way they were, back before things on the journey got complicated.

All of a sudden, the door behind the burst open, and the court members heard a familiar voice. "Lance! Get away from there!" The two turned to spot Shiro in the door way, armed with a normal sword. Pidge and Hunk are both behind him peeking in, holding the weapons passed down from their ancestors.

Keith started to panic at the sight of the new arrivals, and he started backing up when he realized their glares were directed at him. They don't recognize him. All they see is some sort of clearly inhuman monster with a blade over what seems like just another human man, with Lance injured and cowering in the corner.

Shiro tensed up when he noticed the weapon in his had, and raised his own sword at Keith as a warning. "Where did you get that. What did you do to the red prince!?" He yelled and Keith flinched, and as much as Lance had to say something, he couldn't speak. So much had happened that he had completely frozen up, and for once in history he was speechless. He watched helplessly as Keith backed against the wall, lifting his weapon up.

Before they could charge each other however, Lance finally was able to find his voice, and he struggled to stand up. "No! Wait! He's not the monster... that's... that's Keith..." His voice cracked at the end, since the truth was now solidified by speech. Before the remaining three could even process the sentence fully, Keith had disarmed Shiro, shoving him aside and running out the door before Pidge and Hunk could stop him. Lance tried to get up and give chase, but the black knight stopped him.

"Give him some time alone Lance... I promise we will find him in the future, but for now, he needs a few days to consider everything that has happened." He explained which calmed the jester down. He took a deep breath and sank back down to the ground, and finally let the tears start to roll down his face. 

Shiro looked back towards were the two men were, not surprised that they were gone, escaped sometime during all of the commotion. Pidge and Hunk looked at him expectantly as if for the order to give chase, but the knight just shook his head. The time for that would have to come later, right now they needed to calm down and get Lance healed.

The remainder of the group let their adrenaline rush die down before they all gathered in the forest near the town, creating a small temporary camp site with a small fire. As a rare occasion, everyone was silent and on edge, knowing the enemy could be anywhere nearby, but not wanting to risk any more travel with Lance in such a low mood and with his injuries.

"So..." the green scientist was the first to utter a word in an attempt to smoke out some of the awkward silence that has befallen the group. "I know we all don't want to talk about it but we need to... Is Keith... who..." They struggled for words before sighing, "is there a possibility he's working with them? With those creatures?"

Lance gave them a look of disbelief, which he then gave to everyone else when nobody gave any objections. "Are you kidding me!? Of course not! He saved my life! He's not... he's not a bad guy!" He realized he sounded slightly desperate but there was nothing he could do about it, he simply couldn't believe these people were not doubting the prince. "You guys weren't there, you didn't see the look on his face when he realized he was one of... that he was just in the same species as those creatures."

Pidge just sighed and crossed their arms, sitting up a tad straighter. "Don't judge me, but I'm going to play devils advocate here. Those guys are obviously masters of deceit, since their appearance is basically always a lie, and they've probably fooled us more than once at this point, so how do we know this whole 'I am your father' scene isn't just another intricate ploy to get us to trust Keith?" 

Lance shot her an annoyed look and almost looked as if he was going to say something he would regret when Shiro gently placed a hand on his shoulder like he did for Keith. "I've known Keith since we were small. He was heavily guarded at all times and ridiculously well kept. There's no way he would have sneaked anything by the kingdoms, especially not for that many years. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. However, I do believe this will affect him a lot, and though I'd like to hope he would never do such a thing, I will have to put in consideration he might switch sides after learning what he did today." He finished carefully.

"No. Nope. Nu uh." Lance stood up, causing everyone alarm when he wobbled a little before placing a hand on a tree to steady himself. "I refuse. Keith would... Why would he do such a thing!?" His voice raised out of his control as Shiro stood as well, towering over him with a silent threat for the jester to sit back down.

"Because. Although Keith is strong, there is the easier choice of going where his own true people would readily accept him. We wouldn't have to face all of our skepticism and face negative thoughts of him from his own friends. He'd never have to make that confrontation. Although I believe Keith would never fight his friends, it doesn't mean he has the might to face us again after what we said back in that room." He explained clearly as he watched the fight dissappear from the usually cheerful and overly optimistic boy. Lance just shook his head and turned attempting to run, with Shiro quickly catching up to him and keeping him from falling when he tripped on a branch. Pidge and Hunk could do nothing but glance at each other then back at the fire.

Shiro picked up Lance bridal style, careful not to worsen any of the man's injuries before sighing and giving him a small handkerchief to wipe away the tears that were now streaming down his face.

"I just want Keith back..." He said quietly before curling up more in the larger man's arms, not caring how he may look to the other two by the camp ta the moment. Although he was irked at the prince's short temper and how regal he always acted, he couldn't help feeling something important went missing when Keith ran out that door.

"I know." Shiro said. "We all do."

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story on this website, since my friends just introduced me to it :33 hope you guys enjoyed it!


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